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Wednesday, 31 May 2017

Uber fires self-driving car engineer amid legal fight with Google

Uber has fired the engineer accused of stealing secrets from Google-owner Alphabet after he failed to assist with an investigation related to the lawsuit.

Anthony Levandowski, previously worked on self-driving car technology at Waymo, owned by Alphabet.

He is accused of downloading 14,000 confidential files before leaving the company in 2016.

Uber denies it is using stolen technology.

In a court filing last month, Uber maintained its technology is different. It described the claim that employees brought files to Uber with the goal of creating "copycat" technology as "demonstrably false."

Mr. Levandowski has declined to testify in the case, launched in February.

The firing was confirmed by an Uber spokeswoman, who said it was effective Tuesday.

Mr Levandowski had already been removed from working on the self-driving car technology at the heart of the suit.

He started working at Uber in August 2016, when the firm bought Otto, the self-driving truck start-up he had created in the six months after leaving Google.

He declined to testify earlier this year, citing his right to avoid self-incrimination.